What Do You Expect When You Pray?

I drove down the hill in Cody, Wyoming and saw a shocking sight.  In front of the Buffalo Bill Historical Center were two fire trucks, an ambulance, three police cars, and a swarm of emergency personnel.  I imagined that the museum must be on fire, or maybe there was a bomb situation, or maybe some horrible person had gone on a shooting spree.

But when I got close enough to see what was happening, there was just one car that had rear-ended another.  It didn’t look like anyone could have been seriously injured.

All that for a fender bender.

When I was in Africa several years ago I became aware of the richness we have in the United States when it comes to first responders.  In Uganda you don’t see police and ambulance and fire trucks responding in all their glory to a simple 9-1-1.

When I pray, I pray like a spoiled, first-world Christian, and for once that is a healthy image instead of an embarrassing one.  I pray expecting God to start working my problem immediately.  I pray expecting God’s expertise and wealth of resources to come in with sirens blazing and lights flashing.  I pray expecting to be rescued in a two-fire-trucks, one-ambulance, and three-police-cars kind of way.

“Call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you will honor me.”  (Psalm 50:15  NIV)

Rescue for me.

Honor for the First Responder.

Do you pray with expectation?